Becky Harling
Though many of us grew up hearing about God’s love for us and singing songs about God’s love for us, living in the joy and security of that deep love can be a challenge. In part, this has been because the love of God is extraordinary in every way. It is incomparable in nature and unfathomable in depth.
What Does Scripture Teach about God’s Love for Us?
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible speaks of God’s love for us. The book of Psalms alone has many verses describing God’s love for us. The Psalmist David described God’s love with these poetic words, “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies” (Psalm 36:4). He goes on to write, “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God” (Psalm 36:7). In another Psalm, David wrote, You, LORD, are forgiving and good abounding in love to all who call to you” (Psalm 86:15). Through Psalm 136, the echoing refrain is, His love endures forever. The prophets, psalmists, and apostles all wrote about and were enamored with the infinite love of God. Jesus, as the physical demonstration of God’s love, taught about the Father’s love often.
The Greatest Demonstration of God’s Love for Us
The greatest demonstration of God’s love for us is the cross of Jesus Christ. On one of the last nights before He would give His life, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). At the time, Jesus’ friends didn’t know it, but that’s exactly what He was planning to do. God the Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to die so that we wouldn’t have to pay the price for our sins. It’s amazing to think of dying on behalf of a friend, but even more unfathomable would be dying for an enemy. Yet, that is exactly what Christ did on our behalf. The Apostle Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God took the initiative to invite us into friendship by giving up His only Son to take all the punishment on the cross for our sins.
Crucifixions were the most brutal of all capital punishments. The criminal was nailed to a cross, naked and left hanging to die by exhaustion and asphyxiation. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jesus was tortured, beaten, and sentenced to death by an illegal trial. When we read the story, detailed for us in all four gospels (Matthew 27:32-56, Mark 15:21-38, Luke 23:26-49, and John 19:16-37) our hearts scream, “Injustice”! Yet mans’ injustice accomplished God’s perfect justice. However, at the cross of Christ, horror and hope come together.
Death is the punishment for sin before God. God made Christ who knew no sin, become sin on the cross so that all His wrath towards that sin was poured out on Jesus. When Jesus rose victoriously, He conquered sin and death for all time. Once we put our faith and trust in Christ, God clothes us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. From then on, we look as good to God the Father, as Jesus Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).
المقال أيضًا بمناسبة عيد الحب بعنوان ” كيف نفهم ونقبل محبة الله العميقة لنا”
What Does It Look Like to Walk in the Spirit?
We are new creations if we are in Christ, yes, but the battle rages on until Christ returns. The flesh and the Spirit have competing agendas.
But this shouldn’t lead us to a defeatist mentality. Paul tells us in Romans that we aren’t slaves of sin any longer (Rom 6:6-7, 14, 18, 22). We have been united to Christ, and we have the power of walking in the newness of life (Rom 6:1-5). We can have significant and observable victory over remaining sin, as we refuse to let it reign in us (Rom 6:12). We who know God’s saving grace in Christ have said good-bye to the world of sin. We’re new. This does not mean that we are not capable of sinning anymore, but rather, that our relationship to sin has changed. We died to it (Rom 6:2). We have a new heart, and therefore don’t want to go back to that way of life. These gospel realities give us hope as we consider the present battle within (Gal 5:16-26).
Paul tells the Galatian believers four important truths about walking by the Spirit:
1. We walk by the Spirit continually.
To “walk” by the Spirit (Gal 5:16a) indicates the need to yield to the Spirit every day and everywhere. We must meditate on the Spirit-inspired Scriptures, and follow the Spirit’s guidance in our relationships.
2. We walk by the Spirit to overcome the flesh.
When Paul says, “walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16b), he’s stating a promise. Those who yield to the Spirit daily have the promise that they will not gratify the flesh. There’s no neutral ground. We’re living in one sphere or the other. You cannot be walking by the Spirit and be harsh with your spouse at the same time. You cannot be walking by the Spirit the same moment you burst out in anger at your roommate.
3. We walk by the Spirit because the battle is so intense.
The inspired apostle says that the flesh is “against” the Spirit and vice versa, and that these two are “opposed to each other” (Gal 5:17). The enemy wants us to have a casual attitude toward sin. Paul is telling us that the Christian life is a war. Therefore, to conquer the flesh, one must see the seriousness of this battle and resolve to walk by the Spirit. Without His help, we have no shot conquering the internal conflict within us, or the external conflicts we have with others.
4. We walk by the Spirit to be free from the law.
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal 5:18). Paul connects life in the Spirit to liberation from the Mosaic era. Believers in the new covenant are enabled to obey God by the new way of the Spirit, and bear fruit for God (cf., Rom 7:4-6). We have new life in Christ, and new power in this new covenant, to offer ourselves to God. God has given us everything we need to showcase his love and grace in our relationships.
